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Eighty percent of Population Takes Psychiatric Drugs and Gets Worse


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80% Of Population Takes Psychiatric Drugs and Gets Worse

 

by Peter Breggin MD

A sample of 1.5 million Danish people reveals two devastating findings: (1) at least 80% of the population will be diagnosed and/or medicated for “mental illness” in their lifetime on two or more occasions, and (2) they will end up with “subsequent” “long-term socioeconomic difficulties” “including lower income, unemployment, and increased likelihood to live alone and to be unmarried.”1

 

Does this prove that mental illness ruins lives? No, when 80% or more of the population is treated as mentally ill, the concept has no meaning or relevance, except that it results in two powerfully disabling outcomes: (1) psychiatric drugs that universally disable the brain temporarily and too often permanently and (2) stigmatization and demoralization that undermine how the individual is viewed by himself and others.

 

Psychiatric drugs cause acute brain dysfunction, which makes it harder for anyone to deal with the realities of whatever in their lives or within themselves is causing them disability, distress, and suffering. The brain dysfunction lasts at least as long as the individual is taking drugs and can be mild to severe, depending on the intensity or length of exposure. Brain dysfunction, sometimes accompanied by permanent damage, can cause persistent mental, emotional, and spiritual decline, as confirmed in the Danish study.

 

Studies in the United States with children started on low doses of Ritalin (methylphenidate) in the 1970s for minimal symptoms of ADHD showed they did very poorly long-term. They had a lifetime decline in quality of life compared to controls, including stunted growth, lower IQ, less education, more psychiatric hospitalizations and imprisonments, obesity, and a shorter lifespan. Ritalin became a gateway to becoming lifelong mental patients on psychiatric drugs of every sort. Other studies have shown brain shrinkage from stimulant drugs given to children. I have reviewed the scientific literature demonstrating these outcomes in Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients, and their Families.2 These long-term catastrophes are primarily caused by drug-induced neurotoxicity3 but also by the stigmatization and demoralization from doctors telling the children and their parents that the children are genetically defective, have biochemical balances, and need the drugs — lies to get them to take the neurotoxins.

For many years, evidence has been increasing that taking psychiatric drugs is among the most dangerous risks in modern society. For decades, I have been explaining and documenting that psychiatric drugs overall do much more harm than good. The drug-induced dysfunction or damage causes “medication spellbinding”4 — the inability of patients to fully perceive the harm the drugs are doing to them.5

Stopping psychiatric drugs can also be very dangerous because the brain has adapted to the drug as an alien and harmful substance, and when the drug is removed, the brain goes into a new imbalance due to withdrawal. Depending on the type and number of drugs and the length of exposure, psychiatric drug withdrawal must be done carefully, with support from friends or family, and hopefully under experienced clinical supervision. My book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapist, Patients and their Families, describes the dangers of the drugs and how to safely withdraw from them.

 

The Stigma and Demoralization

 

Healthcare workers who diagnose people with mental illnesses are stigmatizing and demoralizing them. The labeled persons experience shame, guilt, and anxiety from the diagnosis and feel less able to control their own lives. They feel more helpless and dependent on others and on drugs. The people around them may also change their views of the “patient” in ways that undermine their self-esteem or sense of autonomy. When children or adults are falsely told they have “biochemical imbalances,” it becomes a prescription for them to feel helpless and unable to control their feelings or overall mental life. As a psychiatrist, I often have to help individuals recover from self-destructive lies they have been told by everyone, from psychiatrists to family doctors, nurse practitioners, and psychologists.



Lessons for All Westernized Nations and All People

 

The Danish study, which documents that nearly everyone is going to be prescribed psychiatric drugs in their lifetime, holds true for America and other large Western nations as well. The effects of psychiatric drugs will be the same everywhere, causing varying degrees of decline in the individual’s quality of life. Many people may not experience or feel that they are undergoing a dramatic decline. But in my experience as a therapist and psychiatrist who helps people withdraw from psychiatric drugs, all or nearly all people who carefully withdraw from psychiatric drugs realize for the first time that they were much more blunted, remote, or disengaged from people and life when on the drugs. They “find themselves,” “have their real feelings,” and become “stronger” as they gradually recover from the neurotoxicity. Coming off psychiatric drugs enables them to better deal with their problems and to have much more fulfilling lives.

 

1 Lars Vedel Kessing, Simon Christoffer Ziersen, Avshalom Caspi, et al. Lifetime Incidence of Treated Mental Health Disorders and Psychotropic Drug Prescriptions and Associated Socioeconomic Functioning. JAMA Psychiatry. 2023;80(10):1000-1008. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.220. Quotes taken from the “Key Points,” “Abstract,” and “Conclusions and relevance.” 

https://breggin.com/admin/fm/source/6905_breggin/Psychiatry/Eighty-percent-80-of-population-mental-health.pdf

2 Breggin, Peter. Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapist, Patients and their Families. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Available at bookstores and Breggin.com | Books. Chapter 6 gives multiple citations to the scientific literature for stimulants and other chapters document the harms from the whole range of psychiatric drugs. Our website, www.breggin.com, provides PDFs of my multiple scientific articles dealing with these issues. A complete list of my books and articles is found in my resume (on the dropdown menu labeled “About”) @ www.breggin.com.

3 Breggin, Peter. Psychiatric drug-induced Chronic Brain Impairment (CBI): Implications for long-term treatment with psychiatric medication. International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine (2011) Breggin2011_ChronicBrainImpairment.pdf

4 Breggin, Peter. Intoxication anosognosia: The spellbinding effect of psychiatric drugs, International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine (2007). Breggin2007.pdf

5 Breggin, Peter. Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide, and Crime. Available at bookstores and Breggin.com | Books

 

 

Join the Conversation! Read the article, jump into the comments at the Breggin Substack.

 

Find us at Twitter: @GingerBreggin @AmericanMD

Find us at our website: www.Breggin.com

Find us at www.AmericaOutLoud.com

Please do not private message me.  Only tag me for urgent questions about tapering and reinstating - thank you.  

 

***Please note this is not medical advice.  Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a doctor who understands psych meds and how to withdraw from them, if you can find one.

 

Lexapro   Started Apr 15 2010 - 10 mg;  started taper August 2017, recent taper info: Apr 2 '20  0.18 mg; Jul 16  0.17 mg, Aug 23  0.16 mg, Oct 7  0.15 mg, Nov 8 - 0.14, Jan 16 '21 - 0.13, Feb 7 - 0.12, Feb 22 - 0.11, Mar 26 - 0.10, May 21 - 0.09, June 15 - 0.08 Aug 16 - 0.07, Oct 6 - 0.06, Nov 21 0.05, Dec. 17 0.04, Jan 14 '22 0.03, Feb 19 0.02, Apr 18 0.01, May 15 0.005,  Jul 8, 0.00.  Psych Drug Free as of July 8, 2022!!  Woohoo!!!

other meds: Levothyroxine 75 mg

magnesium in small amounts at 4 AM, before bed

suppl AM: fish oil, flax oil, vit C, vit E, multivitamin, zinc

suppl 8 PM: magnesium 350 mg, extended release vitamin C, melatonin 2 mg

 

Paxil 2002 - 2010, switched to Lexapro 2010 

Trazodone 50 mg. 2002 - 2019, fast tapered in 2019 

Xanax 0.5 mg as needed 2002 - 2019, up to 3x weekly 

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  • 3 months later...

This article may be correct in places but makes unsubstantiated/unhinged claims in others [e.g. psych drugs universally disable the brain] and is overall terribly agenda-driven and not a balanced analysis of the research. Ideally it would be removed, as an endorsement here would undermine this site's attempt to be scientifically literate and accurate.

 

edit: A quick lookup of this Breggin guy: He is a far-right conspiracy nut. Thinks the pandemic was planned by Bill Gates et al, vaccines are evil, etc etc.

- - - - - - past rx- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Prozac 20mg [2015 - 2017]   |  9-12 month taper, no withdrawal syndrome

Wellbutrin XL 150mg [2015  - 2017]  |  9-12 month taper, no withdrawal syndrome

 

- - - - - - current rx- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Wellbutrin XL 150mg [8/2022 - present]

Cymbalta 30mg  [7/2022 - 11/2022]   ....  Cymbalta taper (currently 2.3mg) [11/2022 - present]

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  • Mentor

Your point is well received, particularly with the referenced quote. Breggin has however drawn a needed amount of attention to this topic.

2005 - 2016 on & off methylphenidate and bupropion; short terms trials of other medications; tried many supplements

2016 Nov - 2017 Mar citalopram ramp up 0-->30mg (4 months)

2017 Mar - 2018 Jan held at 30mg (11months); taking 1.5x 20mg tablets, cutting 20mg tablets in half. inconsistency in split tablet led to extreme side effects.

2018 Feb - 2018 May taper 30mg-->20mg (3months), ~2.5mg/month, cutting tablets; at 20mg side effects (vertigo, headache, etc) disappeared

2018 May - 2019 Apr held at 20mg (11months); attempted taper from 20mg; tried ~17.5mg cutting tablets but symptoms too strong

2019 Apr - 2021 Jun tapered 20mg-->10mg (26months); ~5%/month dissolving tablets in water and pipetting with syringe; min lorazepam 2-3x/mo to mitigate symptoms

2021 Jun - 2023 Nov held at 10mg (29months)

2023 Nov - Nov 7 10mg solid to liquid; Dec 7 liquid 10mg; Dec 14 9.9mg; Dec 21 9.8mg; Dec 28 9.75mg; Jan 27 9.65mg; Feb 3 9.53mg; Feb 18 9.45mg

 

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